What is a phishing attack

You will receive an email from a bank something like the email below ( click on the image for a full size version)

That will take you to a page that looks very much like your bank log in page and ask you for lots of details. Once you enter the details, the phisher has your bank log on details and can access your account at any time and withdraw all your money . When you look carefully you see the url in the browser address bar is NOT the same as the bank’s genuine address.

If you enter the details it then takes you to the genuine bank log on page and you think that you entered the details wrongly so enter them again and log into your account normally

There are lots of variations on the theme and frequently it will be an email saying you need to update your hotmail/yahoo/gmail account details.

The important thing to remember is that banks or email services NEVER send emails asking you to update

On the rare occasion a bank or email provider sends you a message, NEVER follow the link in the email but instead manually type in the banks home page address or email account page

Obviously if you don’t have an account with that bank or provider then you won’t fall for it and just delete the email
If you do accidentally give the details then it is vital that you contact your bank, preferably by phone and tell them what has happened and arrange for all passwords and logins to be changed

Now many people use the same password for every site for convenience . That is the worse thing you can ever do and you need a different strong password for every site. I strongly recommend using a password manger like Roboform

Make sure you keep your computer updated and use the latest version of your browser. All the major browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome all have anti-phishing protection built in, Enable it. Use the WOT toolbar which warns about suspicious or unsavoury sites